Sri Lankan bourse at over 6-week closing high; Commercial Bank leads

Jan 6 (Reuters) - Sri Lankan stocks hit more than six-week closing high on Tuesday, led by top lender Commercial Bank of Ceylon, as investors picked up beaten-down shares ahead of the presidential election later this week.

The main stock index closed 0.98 percent, or 71.75 points, higher at 7,420.14, its highest close since Nov. 20.

"Investors are not worried about the outcome of the elections," said Dimantha Mathew, manager of research at First Capital Equities (Pvt) Ltd.

"They (investors) think if the President Mahinda Rajapaksa wins, stability and continuity will be there and if the opposition wins, it will be a business-friendly government."

President Rajapaksa called early elections to be held on Jan. 8. Twenty six lawmakers have quit the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance since the election announcement, including former health minister Mithripala Sirisena, who is challenging Rajapaksa's bid for a third term. Two opposition legislators have joined the ruling party.

The central bank said the economy would grow annually at 8 percent in the six years between 2015 and 2020 after achieving an estimated growth of 7.8 percent in 2014.

The gain in the stock index was boosted by a 2.92 percent rise in Commercial Bank of Ceylon and a 6.15 percent jump in construction firm Access Engineering Plc.

Turnover was 2.1 billion Sri Lankan rupees ($15.98 million), well above last year's daily average of 1.42 billion rupees, stock exchange data showed.

Foreign investors were net sellers of 287.4 million rupees worth of shares on Tuesday, data showed. They bought a net 22.07 billion rupees worth stocks last year, a little less than the previous year's 22.88 billion inflow.

The stock index gained 23.4 percent in 2014 after rising 4.8 percent in the previous year. It has lost 3.5 percent since Nov. 19 when Rajapaksa announced his decision to hold a snap poll. 

($1 = 131.4000 Sri Lankan rupees) 

(Reporting by Ranga Sirilal and Shihar Aneez; Editing by Anand Basu)

Sri Lanka's tourist arrivals rose 16.1 percent in December

Statistics released by Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) Tuesday showed that Sri Lanka had met its tourist arrival target of 1.5 million for the year 2014.

According to SLTDA figures, Sri Lanka's tourist arrivals rose 16.1 percent in December last year compared to the same period in 2013 with the arrival of 178,672 tourists compared to the 153,918 arrived in December 2013.

For the year a total of 1,527,153 tourists arrived in the island recording a 19.8 percent increase from the 1,274,593 came during 2013.

Most of the tourist arrivals were from Western Europe with 479,007 tourists visiting in 2014 recording a 13.8 percent increase over corresponding 2013 figures. For the month of December 55,877 tourists arrived in the island, 13.9% more than in December 2013.

Arrivals from North America rose by 10.7 percent with 72,653 visitors last year while arrivals from Eastern Europe increased 22.6 percent with the arrival of 154,153 tourists. 

Arrivals from Eastern Europe rose 6.3 percent for the last month.

Tourist arrivals from Middle East declined in December by 24.3 percent to but for the year arrivals increased by 10.5 percent to 88,991.

Last year 280,511 East Asians arrived in the island, an increase of 53.2 percent. Number of Chinese tourists arriving in the island rose by an impressive 136.1 percent to reach 128,166. In December alone tourists arrivals from China increased by 120.4 percent with 10,400 Chinese tourists visiting the island.

Arrivals from South Asia, the other region from where most of the tourists come, increased by 13.4 percent to record 370,299, while arrivals from India increased 16.3 percent to 242,734 in 2014.

In the past year, 57,940 Australians arrived in the country, a 6.8 percent increase from the previous year.